It was sweet revenge for the lad in the red Cuban heels. Three years ago Noel Fielding was heckled when he performed at Roger Daltrey’s annual Teenage Cancer Trust week. Last night the Mighty Boosh star was triumphant, compering an evening of weird and wonderful humour. His contributions were not necessarily the weirdest, but they were certainly the most wonderful.
From the outset this was undeniably Fielding’s big night. Coming on in a sparkly catsuit, he constantly ruffled his newly-shorn scruffy hair, complaining that he had wanted a mixture of Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood and had ended up with a Worzel Gummidge. Hip hairdo or not, the young women in the packed house squealed every time he teetered towards the front of the stage.
The supporting cast struggled to compete in the elfin glamour department, even after a costume change that saw Fielding go from human glitterball to black-clad goth.
The charitable audience tolerated word-botching eccentric Count Arthur Strong as he stuttered through his theatrical anecdotes. Dan Clark’s tales of email obsession and Facebook fixation fared better, perhaps partly because he appeared in The Mighty Boosh’s television series as Johnny Two Hats.
Cult double act Oram and Meeten, also chums of the Boosh, justified their laughs for some oddball sketches that were not warped but definitely a little buckled. Spoof horror writer Garth Marenghi also went down very well, reading a wince-inducingly dreadful excerpt from his latest novel, Greyballs, which confirmed that he is truly the Alan Partridge of fright.
If the first half had been one for comedy trainspotters, the second half boasted the big-time surprises. Razorlight’s Johnny Borrell belted out a couple of skinny-jeaned acoustic anthems before Fielding indulged in an infinitely more entertaining extended comic riff, discussing unicorns and Epicurus and revealing his hatred of prawns, which remind him of "a small man in a pink leotard wearing Raybans".
The biggest musical thrill, however, was not Borrell, but the appearance of Fielding’s languid partner Julian Barratt on guitar and the debut of a full Boosh band.
This finale was the host’s chance to fulfil his shameless rock star ambitions and he threw himself into the task. The music was frankly glorified glam-thrash, yet what it lacked in depth it made up for in posing. Fielding may not be a great vocalist but he is a star from his crow’s nest coiffure to those Cuban-heeled boots.
Gigs continue until Sunday (0870 534 4444)
Teenage Cancer Trust Gig: Noel Fielding & Special Guests
Royal Albert Hall
Kensington Gore, SW7 2AP
